Matthew wrote to show that Christ
was the
Messiah and fulfilled the Jewish prophecies.

This
is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was
betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child
through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such
was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream
and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into
your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been
conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to
fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means "God
is with us."

When
Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his
wife into his home.

This
week’s Gospel passage is one of the most misunderstood narratives in the New
Testament. More often than not, readers of this week’s Gospel passage project a
Western understanding of the circumstances surrounding Christ’s conception that
lead to erroneous conclusions about the Blessed Mother’s pregnancy. The Gospel
passage also provides us with insights into Joseph’s righteousness, rooted in a
deep desire to do the will of God.

The
Gospel passage states that Mary and Joseph were betrothed. In a Jewish context,
that meant that Mary and Joseph were married. When Jesus was conceived in
Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, Joseph and Mary were already
married. When Jewish couples married, they entered a period of betrothal during
which the groom would take up to a year to make arrangements to establish a
homestead for his bride. During this period, the bride lived with her parents,
in anticipation of the day when the couple could live as husband and wife in
their own home. This is precisely the context in which Mary conceived Jesus.
It is not the case that Jesus was conceived out of wedlock, as if Joseph and
Mary merely were engaged. They were married, although not living together at
that moment. Of course, Mary maintained her virginity throughout her marriage
with Joseph. Nevertheless, it is not accurate to believe that Our Lady was in a
crisis pregnancy, insofar as she had conceived Christ out of wedlock and was a
single mother.

In
any case, Mary still found herself in a precarious situation. Although she was
already married to Joseph, she had conceived without his aid. The Gospel
passage implies that Joseph knew that such a situation warranted Mary’s death by
stoning because the law assumed that she must have conceived by another man
since Joseph knew that he had not participated in the child’s conception. The
passage then states that Joseph, because he was a righteous man, did not want to
expose Mary to the law. Hence, he decided to divorce her quietly, hoping that
Mary would not have to pay the penalty for her alleged sin.

There
is a pious tradition that Joseph’s motivation for divorcing Mary quietly had
less to do with a fear of exposing her to the law and more with a fear growing
in Joseph because he had been given knowledge of Mary’s unique status in
salvation history. In other words, Joseph may have wanted to divorce Mary
because he did not deem himself worthy to be the spouse of the Immaculate
Conception. Joseph’s righteousness indicates less of a concern for the law and
more of a reverence for Mary and Jesus. Knowing who they were and who he was,
Joseph’s instinct was to excuse himself from the care of so holy a mother and
child.

As
the Church rapidly approaches the celebration of Christmas, may Joseph’s
righteousness – his willingness to do God’s will – inspire us to place our lives
at the service of the Gospel throughout our particular vocations.